Beijing June 4, ‘07

Venturing out in this massive city is at times a slightly daunting adventure. Clearly booming, the first impression reflects the non-stop traffic, high-rises and masses of people on bicycle. Not necessarily that different from other large metropolis I guess, well, that is except for the number of bicycles. What makes this place so alien though is that it is absolutely incomprehensible – it is impossible to understand and communicate with the majority of the people and finding ones way around by bus or subway becomes hopeless since one cannot read the names of where one is supposed to get off. I have therefore had to accept that my feet and taxis (the latter with hopeless attempts of explaining where I am going) are the best way to get around for the next few days. That concept of ‘lost in translation’ suddenly gets a real meaning here.

I wandered around the famous new shopping strip of Beijing while waiting for my camera lens to be fixed. It had taken me almost an hour of pointing at my camera to finally find the place and now that it was confirmed broken I had a good two hours to kill while some tiny little man was dissecting my camera lens to a hundred tiny pieces just to put it all back together again.

I had some greasy pork in a small restaurant in one of the side streets. It was past lunch time so the place was empty. The food was not very good and I left half of it and got back to the strip. Wangfujing Dajie is a bustling street cut off from traffic, overly crowded with flashing billboards and incomprehensible script. Occasionally something familiar sticks out, such as McDonalds and Adidas signs. I wander into a couple of shops selling all sorts of nick nacks and kitsch at its best. I only want to look around but as soon as my foot is in the door I am surrounded by 3-4 shopping assistants, all trying to grab my arm and saying “Miss, very nice – you want buy??” Needless to say it is not long till I’m back out on the busy street.

Eventually I find a quiet tea room hidden on the second floor of a tea shop. The place has no windows and there are hardly any people there; 3 local Chinese and me. I order some green tea and sit staring at the glass with floating tealeaves, wondering when they will start to sink down to the bottom of the glass. After I’ve sat there for half hour the leaves are still floating on top making it difficult to drink. Surely they are meant to sink so one can enjoy the tea with out all the leaves in ones mouth?? Well, I still have another half hour to wait till my lens is ready so I might as well sit here and enjoy the oasis of tranquility before I again venture out in the hustle of Beijing’s busy streets.